Sick axolotl

[Jaxxon532]

Hey there,
I bought a fairly young axolotl a couple days ago and have had her in a tub while waiting for the main tank to be ready. The first day and night went just fine however when I woke up and checked in the morning she looked very sick. The gills all shriveled up and she seems very lethargic. I immediately changed the water out assuming something terrible happened there. Is there anything I should do to help her recover and get better?
Thanks.

 

[Murk]

Hi!
More info needed

What are your water parameters?
Ammonia, nitrites, nitrates?
Temperature too.
PH and hardness, if you have it.

Do you use a dechlorinator? If yes, which? If no, why not?

 

[GulfCoastAxolotls]

Hey there,
I bought a fairly young axolotl a couple days ago and have had her in a tub while waiting for the main tank to be ready. The first day and night went just fine however when I woke up and checked in the morning she looked very sick. The gills all shriveled up and she seems very lethargic. I immediately changed the water out assuming something terrible happened there. Is there anything I should do to help her recover and get better?
Thanks.View attachment 87464

As Murk said, definitely need a little more info. Generally gill shrinkage is a water quality issue.
What are your water parameters? (ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, pH)
Temperature?
And what chemicals are you using to treat the water

 

[Jaxxon532]

Thanks for the replies. Unfortunately i didn’t test the water the morning of. I changed the water right away. I will post a little later when I can test the water. The temp in the tub is 63 f. As for the chemicals all I use Seachem prime.

 

[Jaxxon532]

Okay so as of right now the water parameters are:
Ammonia - .25
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 0

This is right after changing the water.

I should also note that she seems a little better today. Eating like normal and moving a little more.

 

[GulfCoastAxolotls]

Okay so as of right now the water parameters are:
Ammonia - .25
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 0

This is right after changing the water.

I should also note that she seems a little better today. Eating like normal and moving a little more.

So if your ammonia is .25 after a water change, I suspect your ammonia is actually a little bit higher than that since sometimes it'll be obscured right after a change. I would do another 50% change to bring it down even more. Any level of ammonia like that is going to be harmful/stressful for a new addition.

 

[Jaxxon532]

Thanks. Do you have any ideas as to why there would be that much ammonia present that soon after a complete water change?

 

[Murk]

Thanks. Do you have any ideas as to why there would be that much ammonia present that soon after a complete water change?

You use tap water treated with Seachem Prime for the water changes, right?

As far as I know Prime (and similar products) breaks down chloramine into chlorine (which evaporates) and ammonia. Prime detoxifies the ammonia for a while (so in a cycled tank it won't give spikes), but even the detoxified ammonia will still show up on test readings.
So if your tap water contains a lot of chloramines, Prime can give low readings of ammonia even after a 100% water change.

That shouldn't be enough to make gills shrivel like that, so it's not the cause of your original problem.

If you want to be sure, you could also do an ammonia test on your tap water. It's rare but not unheard of for tap water to contain ammonia.